The Davidson Cyclones senior hockey team is ready to hit the ice for their first game of the 2012-13 regular-season next week.
The team, who will essentially keep their core together from their Long Lake Hockey League (LLHL) and provincial “C” division championship season of last year, face off Nov. 9 against the Drake Canucks in Drake in a rematch of the championship finalists. The team will open up their home schedule at the Davidson Communiplex on Nov. 17 against the Lanigan Pirates.
Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones, said the team only lost five players from last year due to a couple retirements and a few moving away, but the core of the team including 2011-12 league MVP Steve Dasilva, Derek Allan, Brady Willner, Mark Zoerb, Brett Siroski, Kevin Johnson, Chad Manz and Colton Allan are back to try and repeat as league and provincial champs.
“We’ve had a pretty good run in the past three years and it would be nice to repeat as league and provincial champions, but we’re quite a ways from that at the start of the season,” said Shaw. “Championships are what we’re looking for, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done between now and then.”
The Cyclones senior hockey team, who has played out of Davidson under different names since 1905, won their first league championship in the LLHL last season. The team came over to the LLHL in the mid-1990s after competing in the River Lake Hockey League and many others throughout the years previous.
The team has won three straight provincial titles including the “D” division championships in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons and the “C” division championship last year.
Shaw said the team plays a high-tempo offensive game as evidenced by their league leading 172 goals for last season, but that is not the only aspect of their game.
In the 22 regular-season games last year in which the club won 18 and only lost one in regulation, the team also posted a second best total of 96 goals against and the second most penalty minutes total of 420 in the six-team league that also boasts clubs from LeRoy, Lanigan, Watrous, Drake and Nokomis.
“We’d like to be up there in scoring again, but the penalties we’d probably like to rein those in a bit,” said Shaw. “We’re more of a wide open and free-skating team. We’ve got the biggest rink in the league ice surface wise, so with our talent we’d like to play more of an open game and not quite as tight-checking.”